Chinese mainland reports 16 new confirmed COVID-19 cases

BEIJING - Chinese health authority said Sunday that it received reports of 16 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Saturday, of which 13 were domestically transmitted.

All domestically-transmitted cases were reported in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the National Health Commission said in its daily report.

No deaths related to the disease were reported Saturday, according to the commission.

On Saturday, 17 people were discharged from hospitals after recovery, and one new suspected case was reported in Shanghai.

As of Saturday, the overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 83,660, including 251 patients who were still being treated, with three in severe condition.

Altogether 78,775 people had been discharged after recovery, and 4,634 had died of the disease, the commission said.

Three new imported cases -- two in Guangdong province and one in Shandong province -- were reported Saturday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 2,007. Of the cases, 1,923 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 84 remained hospitalized with three in severe condition. No deaths from the imported cases had been reported.

The commission said four people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

According to the commission, 6,925 close contacts were still under medical observation after 212 people were discharged from medical observation Saturday.

Also on Saturday, 42 new asymptomatic cases, including 12 from overseas, were reported on the mainland and no asymptomatic cases were re-categorized as confirmed ones.

The commission said 147 asymptomatic cases, including 87 from overseas, were still under medical observation.

By Saturday, 1,777 confirmed cases including 12 deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 46 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 454 in Taiwan including seven deaths.

A total of 1,274 patients in the Hong Kong SAR, 46 in the Macao SAR, and 440 in Taiwan had been discharged from hospitals after recovery.